Favorite Bed Baits

[Bigbassgrubslayer]

What are you guys' favorite soft plastics for bed fishing. I usually tend to use baits with a lot of action and just plain reel them by on a slow roll, or I just cast a few feet past the bad and keep twitching until the bait is on the bed and then I let sit and then I pick up the rod to raise the lure and I twitch it while it is on it's way down. When that happens, the big female grabs it and just starts swimming away, and then BAM set the hook. My 4 favorite bed soft plastics are: Paddle tail swimbaits, Senkos, Grubs, and Craws. My favorite of each are: Berkley grass pig, GY senko, Berkley power grub, and Yum money craw or Zoom ultravibe craw. Please let me know below what your top 3-5 bed soft plastics are. Thanks, and tight lines with 8 pounders on the end.

[jbsoonerfan]

Keitech fat impact swam by in white

Baby brush hog crawled over in white or red

Senko on a short drop shot bounced on the bed, usually green pumpkin

[PotatoLake]

Zoom lizard

[Bigbassgrubslayer]

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Keitech fat impact swam by in white

Baby brush hog crawled over in white or red

Senko on a short drop shot bounced on the bed, usually green pumpkin

Thank you for responding so quickly. Yes, those are great baits. It is hard to beat any of those, I caught my second to biggest bass (9 pounder) on a drop shot senko (grn. pump. purple copper fleck) on a bed. She couldn't resist it.

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zoom lizard

Hello Potato lake, thanks for your response. I do love a zoom lizard. It actually is my favorite lure period for male bass, idk what the deal is but lizards just drive the nuts out of male bass. Every time i spot a bed underwater and i throw a lizard in there, the male immediately slurps that thing up. Which is actually good, sometimes you want to try and catch the male on purpose, just to get him out of the way so that you can then focus on the big'un female. I will always keep some lizards in my arsenal and hope you do too. Funny story, one time I actually caught a ginormous water mocassin (cottonmouth) on a lizard. And I was freaked out so I reeled him onto the bank and ran over him over and over on my fourwheeler haha. Tight lines.

[bowhunter63]

Rage Bug. Makes em mad

[Mike L]

White Rage Bug or lizard

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Hawkeye21]

Sometimes you just need to give them a few different looks.  Last year I was throwing a wacky worm at a nice smallie on a bed and he would pick it up by the end and move it away.  We casted at least 10 times at him and he did the same thing every time and couldn't hook him.  I finally switched to a tube and he crushed it on the first cast.  It was awesome to see how different he reacted to it.

[craww]

Paca craw on a drop shot about 4-5' up from the weight. Cast the weight past horizontally leaving the plastic in the bed.

[Bluebasser86]

I just pitch whatever I have tied on at them a couple times. If they bite, cool, if not I keep moving. Bed fishing doesn't do it for me I guess. It's cool to watch them react and bite, but more times than I've got them to bite, I can remember when I just wasted a bunch of time trying to get a fish to bite that never did when I should have been fishing for fish that actually wanted to bite.

[Dorado]

2.75” SK Bitsy Bug Tube. Color doesn’t matter, but tubes just get them every time in my local waters 

[Sphynx]

White lizard, I prefer to use colors that are easily seen by me as well as the fish, I think they are far less picky on beds than any other time of the year, they want to move anything at all off those beds and they aren't real particular about what "it" is

[Hammer 4]

Back when I did fish bedding bass, a few baits worked really well. Jigs in white either with or without a trailer, lizards, craw baits worked very well, as did creature baits. I did use other colors besides white, but the local bass seemed to hate white and would attack it with more aggression compared to other colors. 

[CountryboyinDC]

I haven't done much bed fishing the past 5 years, but I used to use a tube, rigged on a Shaw Grigsby hook with a piece of Alka Seltzer tablet stuffed in above a Q-tip head.  It was better than anything else I tried, hellgrammites, lizards, etc., but it wasn't that great.  That's why I haven't been really missing bed fishing.  No moral opposition to it, I just am not all that great at catching them on their beds.  Once the spawn happens, it's time to go turkey hunting.

[gim]

9 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I just pitch whatever I have tied on at them a couple times. If they bite, cool, if not I keep moving. Bed fishing doesn't do it for me I guess. It's cool to watch them react and bite, but more times than I've got them to bite, I can remember when I just wasted a bunch of time trying to get a fish to bite that never did when I should have been fishing for fish that actually wanted to bite.

 

This is me too.  I don't specifically seek out bedding fish but if I come across one I'll toss around it a couple times.  Rarely does it work and I feel like I'm doing something on the border of unethical so that's why I usually keep moving.

[Catt]

I have a new favorite ?

 

Zoom Magnum Ultra Vibe Speed Craw

 

This is not the Super Speed Craw with the big ole flapping pinchers but a beef up version of the Speed Craw.

 

Colors I like Green Pumpkin or Watermelon & occasionally Sapphire Blue.

[galyonj]

1 hour ago, CountryboyinDC said:

...a piece of Alka Seltzer tablet stuffed in above a Q-tip head

 

That's fascinating. Where'd you come up with it?

[A-Jay]

27 minutes ago, galyonj said:

 

That's fascinating. Where'd you come up with it?

"Old Timer" trick that's been happening for almost as long as Alka Seltzer been sold.

Slipping in half of a foam ear plug at the end will not only hold the tabs in but could also help slow the fall.

Don't soak it in Megastrike first though. 

A-Jay

[Bigbassgrubslayer]

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I have a new favorite ?

 

Zoom Magnum Ultra Vibe Speed Craw

 

This is not the Super Speed Craw with the big ole flapping pinchers but a beef up version of the Speed Craw.

 

Colors I like Green Pumpkin or Watermelon & occasionally Sapphire Blue.

Thanks, Catt, for your response. I really love the zoom speed craws (ultra vibe or magnum ultra vibe) I used them last summer and slayed the bass on them just swimming them over grass mats or through reeds. Definitely one of my new favorite baits. And I caught some big bed bass on them too slow rolling them past the bed. Quick question: your profile description on the left side says that your PB is 12-13 pounds. That's big! Mine is only 10 and change. What did you catch that beast on and what were the conditions/water depth like? I'd like to know, thanks

[scaleface]

I either have poor bed eyesight or the water is just to dirty to spot them .That being said   lizards and jigs are my premier bottom bouncing baits during that time of year .

[CountryboyinDC]

2 hours ago, galyonj said:

That's fascinating. Where'd you come up with it?

@A-Jay knows all the tricks.  He can actually catch fish using them too!

[TOXIC]

A lot of good responses so far and some that I use.  A couple that haven’t been mentioned are a dropshot with a short tag t-rigged with a GYCB Shad Shape Worm.  One of my go to baits on St Clair for bedding smallies is a GYCB D-Shad weightless t-rigged in bubblegum color.  I just cast it past the bed and let it flutter down.  Needs to be a fairly calm day until you get really proficient at throwing it.  That bait also works well blind casting in bedding areas or dragging on deeper beds.  

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[Basseditor]

1) Gitzit — special rigging (exposed hook facing backwards and stainless steel screw pushed in the nose). 

2) Bubblegum Senko

[Catt]

4 hours ago, Bigbassgrubslayer said:

What did you catch that beast on and what were the conditions/water depth like? I'd like to know, thanks

 

February 3rd 2007 was a nasty cold morning with Northwest winds at 15-20 mph, a slight misty rain falling, and temperatures in the middle 30's. After having launched out of Jack's 944 Marina I made the short (2 minutes) run to the mouth of Bull creek trying to stay out of the wind and some what warm. Having rounded the corner I dropped the trolling motor, picked up my Rat-L-Trap rod again with the thought in mind of keeping moving and staying warm. My third cast was into the mouth a cut leading to a boat shed which I knew had stumps on the west side, after turning the handle 4 or 5 time my trap stopped solid, I tell Pat d**n to close to the stumps so I push the trolling motor handle towards the mouth of the cut while stepping on the switch. At the exact same instance my line starts zinging towards deeper water rod all bowed up & drag slipping; I immediately scream at Pat get the net. By now the boat is moving off to my left the bass is moving off to my right and I'm nearly on my knees in front of the console with the upper third of the rod in the water. Pat net in hand is now on the front deck killed the trolling motor and with a swift motion netted the hawg; which ends up weighing in at 12 pounds 8 ounces.

[Darth-Baiter]

Lizard or salamander.  Texas rigged thus far.  But it’s been decades since I fished beds.  
 

But:   I’m back!

[Mike L]

5 hours ago, Catt said:

I have a new favorite ?

 

Zoom Magnum Ultra Vibe Speed Craw

 

This is not the Super Speed Craw with the big ole flapping pinchers but a beef up version of the Speed Craw.

 

Colors I like Green Pumpkin or Watermelon & occasionally Sapphire Blue.

The Magnum has been my go to plastic for about 2 yes now. 
 

After a frog it’s the-next thing I pick up. 
No other plastic has been as successful to the point where I won’t use something else. 
 

Honestly I never even thought about swimming one over a bed. 
I usually just use a craw type bait in and around the bed  as I mentioned earlier. 
 

 

 

 

Mike